The Curious Case of the Disappearing Crab

A photo Jason snapped from our back door of the stormy skies. I love it when it gets like this, and it has been looking like this a lot lately, so I'm a lucky girl!

Being chased in by the storm. They're looking back at that dark mess in the sky!

Today, Leify helped Momma clean the bathroom. Here he is a scrubbin' and a wipin' down the sink.

He had a rough night last night - with the start of school (not him, but all the local kids), a new slew of germs has been brought homeside. And no sooner does school start, but little Leify gets sick. He has a lot of icky cold symptoms, and now he has a fever. Waah.

The Curious Case of the Disappearing Crab

Yesterday, we put our crab traps back in the water after nearly a summer-long hiatus. We had run out of bait and hadn't had time to get the cast net out to catch more. So, silly us, we missed the best crabbing of the year. But ah, well, we're back on track now.

After baiting the traps and tossing them in last night, Jason and Leif went out this morning to check to see if we'd gotten anything. When they came in, I asked Leif how many crabs they'd caught and he held four fingers up. Then he looked at his hand and stuck out his thumb for five.

They put the bucket of crabs in the kitchen for me to cook them up later in the day, and during the day, one escaped. I saw him get out, and immediately puttering the scampering crab back in to the bucket.

Late in the afternoon, I went to put Leif down for a nap after a late lunch. I read two books to him in bed, then told him stories (about Leify, of course!) as is our tradition. Since we'd all had a rough night, I fell asleep right beside him.

A couple of hours later, we both woke up and got to our day again. I went to the kitchen after a bit and decided to cook the crabs. I looked in the bucket and counted four. I blinked. I counted four again. Hmn...something was amiss.

So, Leif and I grabbed the crab tongs and hand in hand, walked around the house, calling, "Craaaab, where are you?" and Leif branded his own call, "Show yourself, Crab!"

After searching the whole house with no results, we headed back to the kitchen. I was all glum because I knew that crab would die if left in the house, and create a giant stink when he did. I was not looking forward to that!

As we were walking back, I had the idea to look under the armoire, which had been pulled away from the wall so we could scrape, prime and paint the walls.

So, I looked under the back of the armoire and this is what I saw:

I lightened the pic up a lot so you could see the crab. It was dark under there!

Anyway, we grabbed a dowel from the armoire and used it to get him out, grabbing him with the tongs when he came out in to the open.

That is our adventure of a day! Have a good weekend!

High Tides, Sunrises, Silliness

Leif eating cake (lucky lad!) while wearing the hat from a halloween costume from when Jason was very young. Photo by Jason.

The water coming into the yard and trying to steal the burn pile.

Sunrise as seen from our living room/bedroom. (Yeah, it's through glass).

More of the same, with sun this time.

What a funny color the morning is - kinda plummy.
Taken from our living room.

A Seagull flies overhead in the cerulean sky.

Leif loves raising the bamboo over his head and bringing it down hard on the water to see the big
SPLASH!

More splashing fun.
It was a fairly high tide that day - where he is splashing is normally our yard.

Poling through the water.

Showing off his big Rambo muscles. Pardon the flash.

Love the spray of water from whacking the bamboo in the water.

Notice the tongue out in concentration?

Dancing Bird

This picture cracks me up.

I grabbed my camera to capture some of the beauty of the sunrise, as seen from our bedroom, and saw this lovely Great Blue Heron and a smaller shore bird standing on opposite sides of our little island off our dock. The birds were standing still over the glassy water, and the world was colored with the soft hues of the sunrise. Everything was soft, serene and enchanting.

Then the heron did this.

Immediately, "Dancing Queen" came into my head, but he might have been breakdancing, not sure.

He was jumping up and twirling round in circles. I think something may have been nipping at his feetsies in the water.

In all my years of heron and egret observing, I have never seen anything like it.

So, there you have it, our very own, "Dancing Bird" :)

Indoor Fishin'

He's got the blues...the fish ain't bitin'.

But, what's this!? A fish!

Reelin' it in like a pro.

That is the beauty of indoor fishing!

I should mention: the pictures in this post were taken by Jason. :)

Things I Like:

Things I Like:

:: Stormy days that call for tea in the afternoons while watching the wind blow debris into the yard and whitecaps crowning the waves.

:: Cleaning up said debris with Leify and putting it on the burn pile for a bonfire later on.

:: Little boys who wear their life jackets or helmets around the house.

:: Prep Bowls that I received from DaMomma yesterday. I've been needing some more bowls (I never have enough) for mise en place. The blue and white ones make me think of Greece, a great place to escape to in your head while you're cooking! The green ones match my kitchen towels.
:: A Little Guy who flops on the floor at random and falls asleep, napping there for several hours. He's been making a habit out of this lately.

:: A Project completed in less than 24 hours from writing it on my to-do list. I normally take months to even begin a project I want to do, so it is nice for "Procrastination Laura" to step aside to let "Full-Steam-Ahead-Laura" take charge.

:: The boxes that my mom gave me, perfect for housing Leif's Sandpaper Letters. Thanks, DaMomma!

Things I Don't Like:

:: The recent crop of phrases on a huge percentage of postings at job sites, like: "Local Applicants Only" and "Overqualified Need Not Apply" - I suddenly feel like a long-haired hippie person. Has it come to this? It seems that having a Degree is now a liability, not an asset.

:: Uncertainty. It buggers up everything from decorating the house, to gardening, to dinner plans. Bah, Uncertainty, Bah!

Back to Things I Like (Because Things I Like are More Fun!):

:: Finding Feathers on the ground on walks with Leif.

:: Placing said Feathers in a jar we found on the shore - it is filled with sand from the beach, with the feathers propped up in it. All of it found, and together makes me happy.

The Sandpaper Letter Project

The other day, I was the happy recipient of a huge pack of cardstock from Caryn - 300 beautiful sheets! The next day, I stumbled across a project that allowed me to create something that I'd been looking to buy, but hadn't due to the cost. The project is Sandpaper Letters, a fundamental Montessori language lesson which can run over $200 for a professionally made set. The project required Cardstock (check!), Glue (check!) and Sand (Leif, Let's go to the Beach...Check!). So, this little project cost me $0 and helped me not to spend $200. Cha. Ching.

I cut 30 sheets of 12x12 paper into 3.5" wide strips (a goof there, they were supposed to be index card sized, which I thought was 3.5x5, after years in the photography industry, that was the number stuck in my head - index cards are 3x5, not the same size as the "old" standard photos! D'oh!) Then I cut the strips in to 5" lengths. Leif, of course, was helping me the whole time, gathering the waste strips leftover after the pieces had been cut.

Each 12x 12 sheet of paper made 6 cards.

Then, we flipped the cards over (to their solid color side) and wrote in glue on the right side of the card, a single letter of the alphabet.

Then, we took sand that we had scooped up from the beach (and then filtered through a mesh screen to remove debris - which Leif really loved) and sprinkled it over the glue letter. We shook off the sand back into the sand bucket, and voila - our glue letter was covered in sand, and set out to dry.

Letters and numbers set out to dry overnight.

So, what, you might ask, does one do with Sandpaper letters?

Well, little biddies learn how to make letters using them. They trace their finger over the letter in the same manner that it is written out - the sand texture helps them to remember the movements. Montessori is big on tactile learning - it is one more method to help them remember. So, the cards can be used for that, as well as learning to spell, etc. and work in conjunction with some other Montessori lessons, like the Letter Sand Box (I'll do that in a bit).

More letters.

Leif and I had a great time making these - working on the alphabet as we went along (he also had his alphabet dice and flashcards from Williamsburg out and was using those to match letters to spell words like his name) - so even the creation of these letters was a lesson in itself!

The best part about these little cards (aside from the cost)? They're business in the front and party in the back - because they have the pretty patterned paper on the back. Each letter is its own design on the back, so all the E's match, all the Q's match, so forth and so on. I am the girl who falls in love with purses not for their looks on the outside, but for their lining on the inside, so pretty Sandpaper Letter Cards are right up my alley!

More bloggage below!

The overall view of the Sandpaper Letters, drying on the end of the dining room table, and our old kitchen table snuggied up next to it. For each letter, I did four sets of lowercase letters and two sets of uppercase letters. Then I did two of each number from 0-9. Overall, I'm pleased with how they came out, but I'm already thinking of how to improve them!

Leify in the tub last night - he and Daddy took a bubble bath and they turned the jets on for a little bit, making major bubblage. Leif, of course, was in heaven - all those bubbles!

More bloggage below!

Sunsets and Bridges

This is our "new" view since several pine trees were taken down. We now have a more open view of the water through their yard. We miss the shade of the big pines, but we can also now see more incredibly lovely sunsetness over the water. I think this picture is taken due north, but still, isn't it a lovely sight?

Leif decided to pose like this with his block bridge that he built. He told us why he made this bridge: "They went down the road, over the bridge, across the green grass, and up the hill" which is from The Poky Little Puppy, a favorite book of his of late. I didn't get the reference, since I don't particularly like the Poky Little Puppy, so I don't read it to him often, but Jason got it immediately.

Here he is making some repairs to the bridge. He's been loving building with the blocks lately. He builds roads, tracks, bridges, and he does the same thing with his little Plan Toys city.

The Dog Days of Summer

This is the little banner I made for (guess who?) Katy, Leif's cousin, who turns 9 today! Happy Birthday, Katy!

Funny story: I thought I had her present, which was the same as her sister, Sarah's, who had her 10th birthday this past Monday. But, when I went to wrap Katy's present, I discovered I didn't have one for her, and I realized what had happend: At the store, I had decided on Sarah's gift, and tossed it into the cart and I was trying to decide between two gifts for Katy, when Leif said, "Momma, I have to go potty!" I tossed the two things I had in hand, raced him to the bathroom (all the way across the store) and when we emerged from the bathroom, I totally forgot that I had never chosen Katy's gift, and left the store without anything for her.

So, since I didn't want to drive all the way back in to town (it isn't laziness, it's 45 minutes each way!) I decided to make this little banner from materials I had on hand. I found it online (oddly, with the name Avery spelled out, which is another cousin of Leif's) and decided to try my hand. I thought it might require mad scissor skills a la Edward Scissorhands, but it wasn't too terribly hard (thank goodness!) The extra ribbon hanging from either side are so she can tie it up somewhere in her room. I didn't take any time in hanging it up (so it is a bit crooked), but that doesn't matter since that is not it's final hanging place.

Here is a close-up of the sea glass candles I made the other day. We have used them every night - we use them as a centerpiece, then I took them to the bathroom and took a shower with them glowing (we have a large walk-in shower, so they were technically in the shower with me, but nowhere near the water). Later, I took them in to the bedroom and placed them on the dressers beside the bed where they gave a lovely glow well into the night. They were lovely and perfect in all three instances...I need to make more of these - I can't get enough of their jewel-y glow around the house, whether the candle is lit or not! Luckily, I have loads of seaglass (the three candles above were made from one trip to the beach -and they are only part of that load!) so I can make a lot more of these for the house :) I literally have bags of seaglass (and shells) waiting around to be made in to something beautiful.

On a gardening note, the heat came around again and pretty much did the garden in. I'm still harvesting tomatoes, though. I thought they were done, but they just keep coming! I actually had some pink ones come up that I planted from seed, but I didn't see them until too late, so they rotted on the vine (oops). Sort of like the okra that Caryn pointed out to me - "You'd better pick that okra or it is going to get bitter!" I had no idea what she was talking about, so we went out into the garden, and she pointed out a single okra that was bigger than my thumb...well, it was more like two of my thumbs. I had never seen it before, so I had no clue it was even there. We picked it and I cooked it up with okra from the store.

The squash have bitten the dust again, and the cabbages have stalled in their growth. The {hot} peppers are doing well, though. Unfortunately, I have forgotten what type they are, so I will have to dig into my notebook to see when I should harvest them. Right now they are adorable little things sticking up all over the pepper plants. The basil is doing beautifully, though, trying to go to seed as hard as it can, but I won't let it! The parsley is doing its darndest to stay alive despite my constant picking. I'm quite pleased with its success!

On another note, I've finally gotten around to cleaning some large clam shells that I dug up several months ago during a very low tide. I'm going to use them to make a nice candle display. Love me some free beauty for the house! Right now, I'm fast-forwarding the sun bleaching process by sitting them in the sun in a bucket of bleach water. Had I washed and set them out when I gathered them, they'd be all beautiful and white right now, ready for my project. But I didn't. So they're not. So, I'm attempting to speed it up. Reminds me of when we used to gather scallop shells, and other types from the beach, set them on anthills, bleach 'em, dry 'em, and polish 'em up with clear nail polish and sell the to tourists at the Dock. I guess that was our version of the lemonade stand. :)

Right now, Leif and Jason are going for a walk. Leif hasn't napped today...he fights it every day. His excuse d'jour is that his crib is "too 'mall for me!" He's been using that a lot in the past few months, which stems directly from a conversation that Jason and I had, woefully in front of Leif, that perhaps Leif might be getting too big for his crib and that he needs to graduate to a big boy bed. For various reasons, we have not gotten him a big boy bed, but he is certain that his beautiful crib is "too 'mall" for such a big boy.

But, his lack of nap today only means that he'll be crashing that much earlier tonight - and I'll have his crib fresh and waiting for him :)

Today We:

Today we:

:: attempted to make hash browns without a recipe and failed miserably
:: got a bit down on the economy and job prospects
:: decided to do something productive to wash away the unemployment blues
:: created the beauty pictured above, warm candlelight glowing through sea glass
:: thought myself brilliant for such a splendid creation
:: decided to plan more brilliant creations for this week
:: took Leif to the beach for some playground and water fun while
:: Momma stayed home, boogied to fantastic old music and
:: made a cauliflower dish with olive oil, salt and a little accidental garlic (that's it!)
:: wondered what it is about olive oil and garlic that makes the everyday sublime
:: snitched most of the cauliflower dish before the boys even came home
:: enjoyed a lovely dinner with a magnificent sunset and new *glowing* centerpieces
:: found some new job prospects which we are pursuing with renewed gusto
:: watched the billowing clouds in the sky catch the last rays of sunlight from the neighbor's dock
:: all snuggled into bed to read bookies together before we all fell asleep, smiles on our faces.

Good night.